It’s not often that we would agree with former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, but on the influence of AI there is some common ground. He said that the threat to your job did not come from AI itself, but from the guy who was better at harnessing AI than you. There’s plenty of wiggle room in that: not all jobs will be affected by AI in the same way or at the same pace and not all people are going to be affected. For example, AI cannot yet ask the questions to produce a news story or conduct an interview for a feature and especially cannot place information in its context. Many publishers can regurgitate information they are given, but very few add any value by interpreting that information and analysing what it might mean.
But AI is starting to have an impact across the world of print. It is helping match buyers to suppliers in a way that was promised at the dawn of the internet but which was never quite delivered. With the help of AI, those specialised and regional print suppliers can be found. The promise of agentic AI takes this a stage further by taking on the search step and following up with file delivery and even a job sign off. It promises a fully hands off series of decisions that leads to orders being placed and jobs managed.
For that to happen printers need to structure data within the websites so that the business can be found by the AI agent. Just as html arranges content so that web browsers and humans can understand it, information needs to be structured for what an AI agent is looking for. This is not here yet, it is not going to be here in six months. Beyond that all bets are off. Those familiar with AI advise using it as much as possible to better understand what it might do and so to be better prepared for what it will do. In the words of ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it is now.
Preparation for AI is the only sensible approach
It’s not often that we would agree with former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, but on the influence of AI there is some common ground. He said that the threat to your job did not come from AI itself, but from the guy who was better at harnessing AI than you. There’s plenty of wiggle room in that: not all jobs will be affected by AI in the same way or at the same pace and not all people are going to be affected. For example, AI cannot yet ask the questions to produce a news story or conduct an interview for a feature and especially cannot place information in its context. Many publishers can regurgitate information they are given, but very few add any value by interpreting that information and analysing what it might mean.
But AI is starting to have an impact across the world of print. It is helping match buyers to suppliers in a way that was promised at the dawn of the internet but which was never quite delivered. With the help of AI, those specialised and regional print suppliers can be found. The promise of agentic AI takes this a stage further by taking on the search step and following up with file delivery and even a job sign off. It promises a fully hands off series of decisions that leads to orders being placed and jobs managed.
For that to happen printers need to structure data within the websites so that the business can be found by the AI agent. Just as html arranges content so that web browsers and humans can understand it, information needs to be structured for what an AI agent is looking for. This is not here yet, it is not going to be here in six months. Beyond that all bets are off. Those familiar with AI advise using it as much as possible to better understand what it might do and so to be better prepared for what it will do. In the words of ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it is now.
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